Clear and sow gardening - another nutty idea?

[veggiechicken]

Having advised a new allotment Grape to plant up a newly cleared area - just to get something growing - I had another one of my nutty ideas.

It goes something like this - if an allotment plot is 250 square metres and you cleared one sqm a day, in 8 months it would be clear .
If you cleared one sqm a day and sowed into it immediately, in 8 months time the plot would be full of growing stuff.

I know it wouldn't really work like this - as there'd be days when you couldn't clear a sqm or there'd be some reason to stop you but its the principle of the thing!

Since my garden is (ahem) random and I've no idea what size it is, I'm going to tweak this plan and try it out.
Every day, (weather and life permitting) I'll clear a small patch of ground and immediately sow something there. It may be veg, herbs or flowers - it doesn't matter to me. The patch may be a sqm or a sq foot or just a bucket size.
I'm imagining a patchwork of veg and flowers in a few months time - sounds lovely, doesn't it?
Every chicken has a dream.

[chillithyme]

Last year my growing space was a bit all over the place, if I can do small sections at a time like this then this year could be different I hopeIt’s a good dream

[veggiechicken]

I'm going to put some broad beans and calendula seeds in my pocket for tomorrow's Patch - wherever it may be.

[Small pumpkin]

Go for it VC . It sounds lovely. I guess you’re doing this into areas that are not part of your 30 day plan. Is it going to coincide with your roots, shoots, leaves, flowers thingy
I want to see pictures. Think It’s going to be very pretty

[Small pumpkin]

Second thoughts. I may join you in this. In a couple of years time. It may be a good way to tackle my new garden

[veggiechicken]

Go for it VC . It sounds lovely. I guess you’re doing this into areas that are not part of your 30 day plan. Is it going to coincide with your roots, shoots, leaves, flowers thingy
I want to see pictures. Think It’s going to be very pretty

Its a 28 Day plan now, SP (do keep up) and its Fruits week so Broad beans fit in well (by accident).
The patches may be in the appropriate 28 Day bed but are more likely to be where ever I happen to be standing at the time. In other words - could be anywhere!! I'll aim to clear a sq yard (can't relate to metric) but if its just a sq ft, I'll be pleased.

[ameno]

I pretty much did this (although not on quite as small a scale as one square metre) with my new allotment last year.
It was already early May when I took it on, so if I wanted to grow stuff that year I had to get it in as soon as possible. So I'd clear a strip of one bed enough to plant a couple of rows, then get that sown, then a couple more rows, then when the whole bed was done move on to the next, and so on.
Managed to clear and plant three of the four large beds and all four of the small beds by the end of June, and that's including taking a two week holiday in early June.

[Snadger]

I can see a flaw in this idea. Not many crops take 8 months to mature.

How do you keep track of all your nutty ideas running in tandem anyway?

VC, aka Heath Robinson, where would we be without you

[veggiechicken]

I can see a flaw in this idea. Not many crops take 8 months to mature.

.........hopefully, they'd have been eaten by then too

How do you keep track of all your nutty ideas running in tandem anyway?

Most of them have merged into the 28 Day plan which is just a 4 weekly rotation of seed sowing(Roots, Shoots, Fruits and Leaves) and caring for 28 beds (7 a week). Simple!!

VC, aka Heath Robinson, where would we be without you

Less confused?

[Mamzie]

I love your positivity VC, it's really inspiring x

[veggiechicken]

To prove that I really do take my own advice (sometimes!).

I cleared this space of nettles and white comfrey and bunged in - sorry I mean carefully sowed 3 incredibly "straight" rows of Wizard field beans that I saved in 2018.
Then I edged it with calendula .



From another direction - showing one of the compost heaps that I moved yesterday.



I chose this spot because it was in the sun this morning. Sorry about the blurry photos - its not your eyes. It was late afternoon when I took them and the light was fading.

[ESBkevin]

It's good for the soil to have a living root in it, they pull in carbon and feed the soil mirobes with exodates. So in effect they help fertilise ready for the next crop. When you hack off the tops to compost or eat, the roots continue to help water get down and also feed the worms and other soil life.
In a perfect world of no dig gardening there should always be something growing, if nothing else to cycle through the nutrients. Mother nature doesn't do bare earth, she covers everything if she can.
So we should only clear the soil when we need the space for the next crop - in a perfect world, if anyone knows where this perfect world exists can they give me a call?

[veggiechicken]

There are good living roots and bad living roots. Having spent a few hours this morning digging up couch grass roots I can tell you that they are Bad ones and nobody will persuade me that they should be left in the ground.
Its the same with hogweed and dock. Skim off their leaves as much as you like, in Spring, they'll be sprouting and taking over the ground all over again - and they're a nightmare to dig out - but if I can, I will.

[ESBkevin]

There are good living roots and bad living roots. Having spent a few hours this morning digging up couch grass roots I can tell you that they are Bad ones and nobody will persuade me that they should be left in the ground.
Its the same with hogweed and dock. Skim off their leaves as much as you like, in Spring, they'll be sprouting and taking over the ground all over again - and they're a nightmare to dig out - but if I can, I will.

Yep, we are "blessed" with bindweed, There are a couple of patches that just have to be dug deep about every 4-5 years. Knocking off the top growth as soon as it shows for most of the other areas seems to be adequate, but I can't let it get away from me or all hell is let loose.

[veggiechicken]

Exactly! Its OK leaving annual roots to rot down in situ but its different for perennials that will happily grow from a bit of root.